Aurin and Luna walked through the doors of Granville Hall at a quarter to eight in the morning. The pair were feeling sluggish, having overdone it the previous night by dining late on pizza. At least the warm summer breeze was pleasant on their faces as they had walked, but that was gone as they entered the lobby where a dozen other tamers were.

  Thinking that someone was bound to recognise him, Aurin pulled his hood up to help disguise himself. He had even bought a pair of sunglasses and threw those on for good measure. He wouldn’t have been so worried about it, but the reaction he received from his opponent on the Battle Carriage hadn’t exactly made him feel great about battling others. At least the random nature of the Minakai in this tournament would relieve some of the stress, but he would enter under an alias regardless.

  He spotted Jim and Dave from the previous day up ahead, bickering about who would win. How they could know such a thing when they didn’t know which Minakai they would hatch was anyone’s guess, but it didn’t deter them in the least.

  When it was Aurin’s turn to sign up, he stepped forward while Luna stepped to the side. “Hello, my name is…Joseph Wells.”

  “Alright Joseph,” said the lady with the sign-up sheet. “We’re already oversubscribed today, so we need to do a quick check to see how high you’ve reached in a monster tower.”

  Aurin’s heart skipped a beat and he bit his lower lip. “Alright,” he said, trying not to sound reluctant.

  The woman held a small scanning device up to him. It was similar to the one used to decide who would be able to enter the Hazelton Tournament. She pressed the button and then furrowed her brow.

  “That can’t be right,” she muttered.

  Aurin leaned over and looked at the number fifty in red letters on the small screen. “Yes, that’s correct,” he said before lowering his voice. “But please don’t read it aloud. I don’t want anybody else spooked.”

  “Fifty?” she mouthed to him in disbelief. “How?”

  “A lot of practice,” he whispered back.

  The woman shook her head and set the device down. “Alright, I don’t think we’ll need to go over any of the details about refunds should you be bumped from the list. Do you have the two hundred and fifty silver entry fee?”

  “Right here,” said Aurin, pulling out a bag of silver coins. The woman opened it up to make sure it was silver inside and then set it on a scale.

  “Very good, Joseph, please head down the corridor to your left and follow the signs.”

  “Thank you,” said Aurin.

  “How much?” asked Luna with her mouth agape.

  “I’m sorry?” asked Aurin, feigning ignorance.

  “The entry fee.”

  “Ah, that. It covers the egg too and I get to keep it.”

  “Still…two hundred and fifty?”

  Aurin led the way to the doors the other tamers had already passed through and then walked along the corridor. True to what the woman had said, there were signs that directed him to a small room that was lined with shelves. In the shelves were circular holes and Minakai eggs rested within most of them. Sitting in the centre of the room on a small table was an incubator.

  “Woah!” gasped Luna, looking around the room. “Can I take one?”

  “No,” said a deep-voiced man, striding into the room with a proud smile. “I’m afraid they’re for tournament participants only. Sir Arthur Ashmore, pleased to make your acquaintance and even more pleased to welcome you to my tournament.”

  Sir Ashmore was tall and broad with neat brown hair with curtains that parted at the front. He had striking blue eyes that were not unfriendly, yet far from warm. His goatee was wispy on his sharp chin while his moustache above was much thicker. What stood out most about him was his suit. He was wearing brown shoes and blue trousers, topped off with a velvet jacket and a red tie that shined in the morning light pouring through the window.

  “My name is…Joseph,” said Aurin, fighting the urge to say his real name. “Thank you for hosting this tournament. I’m looking forward to it.”

  “The pleasure is all mine,” said Sir Ashmore. “I enjoy it. It’s why I take such a hands-on approach to running the show. On that note, Joseph, would you like to choose an egg from the shelf and we will hatch you your new Minakai?”

  Aurin looked around. “Any of them?” he asked.

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  “Any of them,” confirmed Sir Ashmore with a twinkle in his eye. He placed his hands on the table in front of the incubator. “Take a moment to decide and place it in here when you are ready.”

  Not a single one of the grey eggs gave a hint about the monster resting inside, but that didn’t stop Aurin from pondering a few of them before making his choice. He reached out and grabbed one from head height on the shelf by the window. He turned around and carefully placed it on the incubator and then pressed the button.

  “Very good,” said Sir Ashmore as the forcefield surrounded the egg and the hatching began.

  The egg began to glow purple, telling Aurin that he would be hatching his first lightning elemental. This wasn’t a great start as he had no experience using them and only knew their techniques from studying and battling. The silhouette of a small four-legged beast with a pointed tail appeared within the glowing light. As the purple faded, it revealed the tufty blue fur of the Tuptup that was now Aurin’s. It swished its golden tail and let out a dog-like bark.

  “Welcome aboard, Team Aurin,” he said before Luna nudged him. “Erm, Team Joseph!”

  Sir Ashmore raised an eyebrow. “Pardon me?”

  “It’s nothing important,” said Aurin, picking up his Minakai and holding him high. “You’re my first lightning elemental, so we’re going to learn how you battle as we go, alright, Tuptup?”

  Tuptup barked and started drooling. Aurin took this to mean yes.

  “Excellent,” said Sir Ashmore. “May he serve you well in the tournament. The first match begins at nine o’clock once the spectators have all taken their seats. If you go into the next room, one of my associates will explain the rules to you.”

  Luna pointed to herself. “Am I allowed to go in?”

  “Normally, I would say no, but considering you performed so strongly at the National Championships, I will make an exception. I like to reward talent, even in small ways.”

  Aurin and Luna exchanged an awkward glance. They thanked Sir Ashmore and moved along.

  “Do you think he knows who I am?” asked Aurin in a hushed voice.

  Luna nodded. “Considering you said your name in there, I think that’s likely.”

  *

  Aurin sat on the tamer bench at the edge of the arena. Compared to Hazelton Stadium, which could seat almost twenty-thousand thousand people, Granville Hall was small, with enough space for maybe three thousand people. Granted, the hall was at near capacity, so the event was no doubt a success for Sir Ashmore.

  “And Rodney is eliminated!” called the referee.

  As the tamers cleared the battlefield, a duo of Gorun were rolled out. The topaz-bearing rocks glowed brightly as they repaired the ground before being rolled to the sidelines to await their next job.

  “Up next, we have Joseph fighting with his Tuptup and Dave fighting with his Driftseed,” said the referee, beckoning the two tamers forward.

  It took Aurin a second to realise that he was one of the two competitors, having briefly thought another tamer had hatched a Tuptup. He stood up and walked to his starting position and faced Dave, one of the two tamers who he had met the previous day at the department store.

  Aurin’s Tuptup was crouching low and wiggling his tail as he snarled, while Dave’s Driftseed bounced into the air and floated merrily to the ground over and over. A lightning elemental versus an air elemental didn’t yield any advantages for either tamer, which worked in Aurin’s favour when dealing with an element he had yet to handle.

  “Both tamers ready?” asked the referee and the two tamers nodded. “Three. Two. One. Battle!”

  Driftseed immediately launched itself into the air and swung its head leaf down, sending a blast of wind towards Tuptup.

  “Dodge and zap,” ordered Aurin.

  His Tuptup was a nimble creature and it leapt out of the way effortlessly before following up with a small lightning strike that it charged up in its tail. The electricity crackled as it sped through the air, but the Dave’s Minakai batted its leaf and tossed itself aside.

  Aurin couldn’t help but smile. The battle was already taking him back to the days when he was a new and inexperienced tamer training at Kyle’s ranch. He knew that if his friend was here today, he would have many thoughts and strategies to share with Aurin, but the young tamer had long passed the point of needing the extra help. All the same, he missed hashing out plans and training idea with the rancher.

  “It can manoeuvre well in the air,” said Aurin to Tuptup, “but on the ground you’ve got the advantage. Close the gap and bring that seed back down to Earth.”

  Tuptup let out a yapping roar and bounded across the battlefield. Driftseed conjured up a sharp wind to try and push Tuptup back, but the speedy little beast rolled and dodged to escape the worst. As Driftseed fluttered downwards, Tuptup leapt up and swung his tail at it.

  The attack missed as the air elemental conjured up a gust underneath itself to boost its elevation, but Tuptup was ready. He stood directly underneath his foe where he could not be seen and shot another lightning bolt that struck Driftseed’s underside and sent it spiralling down.

  Grounded, it was Tuptup’s time to shine. He pouned on his foe and sank his teeth into Driftseed’s shell to prevent its escape. With each swing of its leaf, the monster was met by a golden tail that batted it away. Tuptup channelled his element into his fur and emitted a burst of static that was enough to jolt his struggling foe into unconsciousness.

  “And we have our winner, Joseph!” called the referee.

  “Oh no!” cried Dave while Jim chuckled on the tamer bench.

  Aurin walked over to his opponent and shook his hand. “Good match,” he said.

  “Wait a second, you’re the guy from the shop yesterday,” said Dave with narrowed eyes before letting escape a laugh. “I wish I hadn’t told you how to sign up for the tournament.”

  “It was anyone’s game with the randomiser,” shrugged Aurin. “Luck of the draw, I guess.”

  Aurin returned to the tamer bench and gave a wave to the cheering crowd. Luna was clapping loudest of all and then blew a kiss to him as he approached the bench.

  “Good job,” she said from her seat right behind him. “He’s a feisty little one, isn’t he?” she remarked with a nod to Tuptup who was bouncing along behind his tamer enthusiastically.

  “Let’s hope he can last all the way to the end of the day,” said Aurin. “What do you reckon, Tuptup?”

  The furry beast barked assuredly. If he could win three more matches, Aurin would be crowned the winner of this tournament. While it may not make up for his loss against Tobias, he was eager to prove to himself that he was a skilled tamer even without his strongest team members to back him up.

  Sir Ashmore was watching Aurin from a distance and was the last one left clapping as the crowd fell silent. He had a small smile on his face and he knew that the tamer that had walked into his event today was someone he had to get to know much better.

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